COMMENT
What a fine way to spend a day.
On a fine day, in the company of fine friends, I set off to see some of the Waikato's ritziest houses in the second annual fundraising Fine Homes Tour.
For $50, nine posh houses were all mine to trundle round and through, admiring design,
artwork and furniture here, comparing and judging choices and taste there, and all the time - it must be said - speculating about those who live within these fine walls.
I was in the company of 1300 others doing the same thing on Friday.
At some indefinable point the people who reside within the bricks and mortar turn it into a home. It's not just the style, choice of furnishings, colours on the walls - it's how they live in it.
So under the watchful eye of volunteer minders we quickly peer at the family photos on the dresser or walls for clues. What age are they? Do they have kids at home (school-age, teenage or older)? Are they still working (at what) or retired? Do they like music, art, sports or travel?
The tentative answers we deduce fuel more speculation.
Is the kitchen compact in a generously proportioned house because, as someone suggests, it's a single-cook household?
"Oh the joy of not having someone under your feet" seems to be the wistful subtext.
Are they serious music lovers, since two comfy chairs share a room with an impressive-looking stereo system? Wonderful. A room with a tune.
Could that artwork have been picked up on travels rather than from the local interior design store? Looks like an interesting trip, if it was. Is that from India or South America, do you think?
And so on. I love this. I wish I could afford that. I could do this in our house. I wish I was building now. I'm glad I'm not.
Six hours later, exhausted, opinioned out, we all head to the comfort of our own homes. It's been an illuminating glimpse at some houses of the well-to-do, but even more, it's been a rare and fascinating peek into others' lives.
No wonder convincing people to open their homes is one of the organisers' hardest tasks.
Thanks to an organising committee of eight working for eight months, 70 sponsors, 140 volunteers, nine home-owners and 1300 fine-home tourists, close to $55,000 has been raised for the Waikato Breast Cancer Trust.
Organising committee convenor Pam Townshend is pleased that the event will be able to donate $17,000 more than last year's inaugural grant of $37,000.
Such tours do appeal to people's sense of curiosity, she says, but all home-owners handle it differently.
They range from those anxious to have their homes of a standard that will interest people, to others sanguine about hundreds of people trekking through their bedroom.
And it's not just Waikato people wondering what's in their midst. Half the curious visitors came from Gisborne, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Auckland and Northland.
They've made a contribution to fighting a disease that kills more than 600 New Zealanders annually.
Of course, breast cancer afflicts women overwhelmingly, but 12 men had the disease in 1999 (the most recent year for published statistics) and five died of it.
Waikato is one of the most active regions in the country for research and the Waikato Breast Cancer Trust was established in 2000 to support science and education into diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
Its leading light is chairman Ian Campbell, a surgeon who is also a director of the Australia New Zealand Breast Cancer Trial Group, and is part of its science advisory group.
Trust secretary Jenni Scarlet, a research nurse, says funds from the tour give the trust confidence to take on work. A lot of breast cancer research is long-term because women diagnosed with the disease can live for 30 years or more.
"Some studies may follow women for life," she says.
An initiative now likely to get under way is a register of Waikato women with breast cancer, to provide statistics. Nationally, about 2000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year, but the figures do not give a clear picture as diagnosis and death do not necessarily occur in the same year.
The trust supports more than 13 studies or clinical trials, including radiotherapy, drug trials and new surgical treatments, which are done locally or in collaboration with international groups. It employs two research nurses to co-ordinate its work.
It's a sobering end to a fine day out, but then reminders were never far away. One of those fine friends is a breast cancer survivor.
* Email Philippa Stevenson
The Waikato Breast Cancer Trust
COMMENT
What a fine way to spend a day.
On a fine day, in the company of fine friends, I set off to see some of the Waikato's ritziest houses in the second annual fundraising Fine Homes Tour.
For $50, nine posh houses were all mine to trundle round and through, admiring design,
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